* '''Are you dual-booting or installing over the entire drive?''' If you are dual-booting you will need to ensure that you have a primary partition available. Refer to the section on {{local|link=Dual Booting}} if your current operating system is not automatically added to the GRUB boot menu after the PC-BSD® installation.

* '''Have you backed up your important data?''' Any irreplaceable data, such as emails, bookmarks, or important files and documents should ''' ''always'' ''' be backed up to an external media, such as a removable drive or another system, ''' ''before'' ''' installing or upgrading any operating system.

If you wish to determine if your hardware is detected by PC-BSD®, start an installation and click the {{local|link=Hardware Compatibility}} button in the {{local|link=Language_Selection_Screen|first screen of the installer}}.